Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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83. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason third level students here are required to pay the highest fees in the EU; his plans to address this inequality before the next academic year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26990/21]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Why are third level students here required to pay the highest fees in the EU? What does the Minister plan to do to address that inequality before the next academic year? I am concerned that households which are paying up to 60% of their income on rent or mortgage payments do not have the money for these huge fees to send their children to third level education.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's reference to the European Union only works because Northern Ireland is not currently in the European Union. A third level student in Northern Ireland today will pay £4,530 a year and will have to meet that cost in full through student loans. I just checked the conversion rate today and that means students in Northern Ireland pay fees of €5,247 every year. If Northern Ireland was still in the European Union the question would need to be altered. However, I do take very seriously the point the Deputy makes. My Department's statement of strategy, which I published on 8 March last, contains a commitment to put in place a sustainable funding model for higher education. This is essential in ensuring our higher education institutions can effectively meet high standards of quality and performance and achieve critical outcomes.

The Deputy will know that a comprehensive evaluation of the funding options was contained in the Cassells report. The all-party committee in the last Oireachtas asked for an independent economic evaluation of those options to be carried out, and the European Commission and independent expert consultants were involved in that regard. That review is being finalised and I expect to receive it in quarter 2 of this year. I will be happy to brief the Deputy on that review and debate it in this House.

This analysis highlighted the high level of fee support, amounting to more than €500 million annually, composed of funding for tuition of almost 140,000 eligible undergraduate students in higher education. More than 60,000 students now have all or part of their €3,000 student contributions paid. I worry sometimes when the message goes out about the student contribution fee that people considering accessing higher education may think that every student in the country must pay €3,000. Nearly half of our students now get their registration fees paid in full or in part under the SUSI grants scheme, and we are reviewing SUSI to ensure that more students are included.

The student registration fee, however, is very high and I would like to see it reduced. It must, however, be done as part of a sustainable funding model. What we will not be doing is introducing a student loan scheme, such as we have seen in other jurisdictions. I do not think that is a good model, and I expect to be able to outline to the House sustainable funding models for higher education later this year.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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That was a bit of a mixed answer in a sense. It is not good enough to say that we are not as bad as others. We have the highest rate in this regard in the EU. In the last decade or so, according to the Irish Universities Association, IUA, we have seen the State embark on a sustained period of disinvestment from higher education. We have seen a withdrawal of the State from higher education. The third-level institutions are being given 50% less funding per student than in 2008. That is 72% less, if we account for inflation, and therefore very close to a reduction of three quarters in funding per student. The facts speak for themselves. The costs were pushed onto students and families, and fees were increased from €850 in 2008 to €3,000 today. It is an issue of equality of access. If we want an equal and fair education system, this barrier must be removed. Education is a public good, and it must be treated and invested in as such.

There is a great unfairness regarding the contribution fee for those leaving certificate students from last year who found out that their grades had been upgraded in the leaving certificate examinations they sat in November. They got their results and were again charged that contribution fee. I ask the Minister to address that point as well.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I tend not to be overly partisan and I do not mean to be overly argumentative, but I think the comparison I made with the situation in Northern Ireland is fair. I state that because Northern Ireland is a devolved administration. I have no political jurisdiction in Northern Ireland. The Scottish First Minister managed to abolish fees. When is Sinn Féin, in government in Northern Ireland, going to do the same? Where is the commitment to doing that? When is that going to be delivered? The Department of Education in the North had a Sinn Féin education minister for five of the last ten years. The Deputy expects students in Northern Ireland to pay €5,247 every year, and yet she is giving out to me in this House about €3,000.

This aspect goes to the point of consistency. I want to reduce the contribution fee in this country. I have to do it as part of a sustainable funding model for the reasons Deputy Conway-Walsh outlined. We want more students to get into higher education and we want to fund higher education properly. Let us look at what we have done in this jurisdiction. The pandemic employment payment, PUP, was made available to students, the student assistance fund was doubled, 15,000 free laptops were provided, there was a €250 top-up to the student grant scheme and the first increase in the postgraduate student supports in a decade. We have done all this in a Department that is less than one year old. We want to do much more in this area, but I think we have already shown a significant level of commitment to students. I accept that we have much more to do. My direct answer to the question, therefore, is that we intend to introduce a sustainable funding model for higher education in our country this year.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister can dress it up all he likes, but we still have the highest fees here. We compare them with 2008. The Minister knows the situation in the North is one where we are dependent on a block grant. Please God, however, it will not be long until we have Irish unity and an all-island approach to education. I hope the Minister will agree that such an approach will serve all the students across this island, and will be one where we will not have fees and we will not be creating barriers for students going into third-level education.

I also need to ask the Minister about postgraduate fees. What has happened during the Covid-19 pandemic is absolutely extortionate. Students in some cases were sold an experience which was never delivered. I draw the Minister's attention, and I will send him this information separately, to the university in Limerick which promised study trips to students. The cost was worked into the charge, and those students were charged €1,600 for those trips. However, those students cannot get their money back, even though they have never had student visas. I will send the Minister a separate note on this issue, but we must really do something to address the financial barriers for students.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Conway-Walsh and I are both committed to working on an all-island basis. I am very much committed to working with the Deputy in that regard. Nicola Sturgeon, however, did not tell the people of Scotland that she had to wait for Scottish independence to do what she did concerning fees. Deputy Conway-Walsh is asking me a question, but I am wondering when Sinn Féin, in government in Northern Ireland, is going to address the issue of Irish people on the island of Ireland having to pay €5,247 a year, deferring that through student loans and then coming out of college heavily indebted. I am telling the House that what this Government will not do is introduce a system of student loans similar to what, unfortunately, Sinn Féin and others are presiding over on this island. We will not do that. Regarding the specific issue regarding Limerick, I would be very happy to engage with the Deputy and I know she is going to send me the information.